Oil rose more than 1 per cent and topped US$46 (Dh169) a barrel earlier today, as investors reacted to comments by Opec's group secretary general who told reporters in Doha this morning that it would cut its forecast for 2009 oil demand by one million barrels per day ahead of next week's meeting in Vienna. But nagging worries about the health of the global economy and its impact on world energy consumption caused oil prices to pare some of their early gains of more than 2 per cent.
US crude for April delivery rose 77 cents to $46.29 a barrel in early morning trading, after rising as much as $1.24.
London Brent crude rose 40 cents to $45.25 a barrel. It was the first time since December 11, 2008 that NYMEX crude had gained a premium over Brent at the settlement.
"In general, the market is still quite bullish that Opec is going to cut production of maybe between 0.5 million to one million barrels per day," said Clarence Chu, a trader at Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. "But there's some degree of cautiousness on the amount Opec would be able to cut."
Opec will cut its 2009 oil demand forecast by one million barrels per day because of the global economic slowdown, Mr al Badri said, adding that although the current oil price was "not really acceptable" to the producer group, it was not as bad as it could be, given the state of the global economy.
Mr al Badri had also said on Friday that low oil prices could provide economic stimulus in the short term, but at the cost of a supply shortfall in future due to low investment.
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What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
